within a certain range of temperature, are permanent; they are not subject to fluctuations, though the qualities of combinations of them may vary indefinitely. The elements therefore may be regarded as retaining their identity in all ordinary experience.
THE ETHER IS HOMOGENEOUS.
One part of the ether is precisely like any other part everywhere and always, and there are no such distinctions in it as correspond with the elemental forms of matter.
4. MATTER IS ATOMIC.
There is an ultimate particle of each one of the elements which is practically absolute and known as an atom. The atom retains its identity through all combinations and processes. It may be here or there, move fast or slow, but its atomic form persists.
THE ETHER IS NON-ATOMIC.
One might infer, from what has already been said about continuity, that the ether could not be constituted of separable particles like masses of matter; for no matter how minute they might be, there would be interspaces and unoccupied spaces which would present us with phenomena which have never
been seen. It is the general consensus of opinion among those who have studied the subject that the ether is not atomic in structure.
5. MATTER HAS DEFINITE STRUCTURE.
Every atom of every element is so like every other atom of the same element as to exhibit the same characteristics, size, weight, chemical activity, vibratory rate, etc., and it is thus shown conclusively that the structural form of the elemental particles is the same for each element, for such characteristic reactions as they exhibit could hardly be if they were mechanically unlike.